INDIA: This year has seen a lot of science theories, practicals, discoveries, research, breathtaking photos, failures, legacy and many more. Science and Technology will, without any doubt, rule the future.
Till now we have yet to tap the higher potential of science and technology. The world brimming with loads of mysteries can only be unraveled with the way of science.
Spotlight on science and technology venture that humankind has achieved in 2022:
1. NASA changes asteroid direction
After spending 10 months in space, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first planetary defence technology demonstration in the world, successfully impacted its target asteroid. The agency had never before tried to manoeuvre an asteroid into orbit.
Mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, declared that the probe successfully made an impact.
DART’s collision with the asteroid Dimorphos serves as an example of an effective mitigation method for defending the earth from an Earth-bound asteroid or comet, should one be identified. This tactic is part of NASA’s bigger planetary defence strategy.
2. Pig’s organ revive after death
One hour after the pig died, scientists were able to revive the circulation and cellular activity in their essential organs, including the heart and brain. The mentioned incident can be considered a miracle in science.
The study casts doubt on the notion that cardiac death, which happens when blood flow and oxygenation are stopped, is irreversible and raises moral concerns about how death should be defined.
The research comes after 2019 experiments by the same researchers that challenged the notion that brain death is irreversible by reviving the disembodied brains of pigs four hours after the animals had passed away.
3. The Immortal Jellyfish
The Mediterranean Sea is filled with fleets of tiny, translucent umbrellas, each approximately the size of a pea.
As do numerous other jellyfish species afloat in the luminous sea, this tiny Turritopsis dohrnii (T. dohrnii) jellyfish wave and grab plankton with its pale tentacles.
The mature adults, known as medusas, can turn back the clock and revert to their youthful forms when their bodies are harmed, which distinguishes them from other sea creatures.
They lose their limbs, transform into a goo that drifts, and then change into polyps, twig-like growths that adhere to rocks or plants.
The medusa buds slowly emerge from the polyp anew, refreshed. T. dohrnii can be killed by a predator or an injury, but not by old age. In essence, they are eternal. This truly assures another wonder of nature blended with science.
4. James Webb Space Telescope starts duty
The James Webb Space Telescope, also known as JWST or Webb, is a sizable infrared telescope with a primary mirror that measures roughly 6.5 metres.
On December 25, 2021, at 7:20 a.m. EST (2021-12-25, 12:20 GMT/UTC), Webb was successfully launched from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana. With hundreds of astronomers using it worldwide, Webb will be the leading observatory for the next ten years.
It will investigate every stage of the evolution of our Solar System, from the earliest bright glimmers after the Big Bang to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on Earth-like planets.
The “Next Generation Space Telescope” (NGST) was the first name for the Telescope, but it was renamed in September 2002 in honour of James Webb, a former NASA administrator.
5. Orion Spacecraft flyby Moon
With help of science humankind has carved the way to Moon. This brings us to Orion spacecraft’s wonderous mission. During the course of the mission, Orion conducted two lunar flybys, going as near to the moon’s surface as 80 miles.
Orion purposefully stressed systems before flying personnel by travelling over 270,000 miles away from Earth at its furthest point during the mission—more than 1,000 times further than where the International Space Station orbits the planet.
6. Black Hole at the centre of Milky Way
Astronomers have now captured the first-ever image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.
This finding provides unequivocal evidence that the object is a black hole and throws information on the operation of these enormous objects, which are thought to exist at the galactic centre in the majority of cases.
Using information from a vast network of radio telescopes, the image was produced by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, an international research team.
The long-awaited picture provides a glimpse of the enormous object at the galactic nucleus. Scientists had previously observed stars revolving around an invisible, small, and extremely large object at the Milky Way’s centre.
The image released on May 12, 2022, offers the first concrete visual proof that the object, known as Sagittarius A*, is a black hole.
Also Read: NASA Releases Fresh Image of Rossette Nebula
